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  • Writer's pictureCaitlin McGarry

Before a Global Pandemic Clipped Our Wings

Updated: Jul 14, 2020

The following dissertation summary reminds us of a time that online platforms were one of the dominant influences on our travel plans; not quarantine measures, travel restrictions and a pandemic drastically outstaying it’s welcome...



Thank you to PR Academy for featuring a summary of my final year dissertation - An Exploration of the Influence of Digital Technologies on Millennials’ Travel Behaviour. For a more in-depth read, please see here.


The proliferation of the Internet platforms parallels the diversification of travel offerings, as global tourism expands at an inexorable rate (Mintel, 2014). Travel products’ diversity and demand increases (Buhalis and Law, 2008), exigent travel consumers consult highly-informative platforms, including social media, specialist review websites (aka TripAdvisor), and online travel aggregators (aka OTAs; aka Expedia, Booking.com, Skyscanner…)



Millennials are the infamous fans of the city break, and squeeze in trips left, right and centre whenever time (and money) allows. But how much do millennials realise that digital technologies, especially social media (looking at you, Instagram) influence travel choices? I’m not just talking about the decision of where to eat, drink and sleep; nor the choice of destination. I’m talking about the actual desire to travel in the first place.


Any Tom, Dick and Harry could tell you that the Internet influences travel. So, for my final year dissertation, I conducted a deeper exploration into how digital technologies have concurrently developed and disrupted travel and tourism, with a focus on millennials (being one myself).


*Disclaimer #1: My dissertation was written in the pre-coronavirus world. I hope to do a future post on how Covid-19 will impact millennial travellers*


*Disclaimer #2: I tried to make this post more ‘reader-friendly’, so excuse any grammatical errors*



So, who are the millennials?

Strauss-Howe’s generational theory predicates that values, beliefs and expectations are shared within age-groups. Howe and Strauss (2000) identify ‘millennials’, otherwise ‘Generation Y’, as being born between 1982 and 2002. However, Benckendorff et al. (2010) and Fromm and Garton (2013) observe that the range varies from birth years starting 1976- 1980s to 1995-2000. In the present study, ‘millennials’ are defined as aged 18-32.

Millennials are known as ‘digital natives’, who have grown up with “deeper connections to the world than previous generations” and desire to enrich their lives through travel (Expedia, 2016). Millennials are considered one of the most important audience segments for tourism (Veiga et al., 2017), yet contemporary insight is lacking regarding how online platforms and marketing may affect or be affected by millennial travellers.


This research explored the role of online platforms on millennials’ travel behaviour, and subsequent travel and tourism industry implications. Shout-out to my online survey respondents (all 236 of you) and my focus group participants (what a way to end what-turned-out-to-be our final lecture together...!)


Although global tourism has generally seen an upward trend, millennials represent 50% of the world's travellers (Hamed, 2017). Of course, everyone has their individual reasons for wanting to travel, but there are innumerable other motivations behind millennials’ travel-planning. In the extant literature, Dann’s (1977) ‘push-pull’ theory is widely accepted. ‘Push’ (internal) factors drive people away from home; ‘pull’ (external) factors attract people towards destinations (Prayag and Ryan, 2011). Simples.


Regarding push motivations, millennials have a desire to relax, a need to escape routine and a hunger to broaden horizons. Millennials favour spontaneous, ethnically-authentic experiences and become immersed in foreign cultures (Fenton, 2016). For millennials, ‘pull’ motivations often concern destinations’ qualities, including the local weather, tourist attractions and activities (Correia and Pimpao, 2008). Beyond this, it is suggested that ‘pull’ factors determine destinations’ reputations, whilst subsequently triggering push motivations amongst millennial travellers.


More specifically, my research sought to uncover millennials’ motivations for using the Internet when travel-planning, alongside the role of online travel aggregators (OTAs) (reminder: Skyscanner etc.) Underpinning millennials’ use of OTAs, the findings revealed ‘financial’, ‘choice’, ‘convenience’ and ‘control’ motivations. Incidentally, it was suggested that high-street travel agents’ standardised approach (Mintel, 2014) discourages millennials of availing of their services. As the Internet permits on-demand access to the sharing economy’s services, such as Airbnb and Uber, their popularity amongst millennials was reinforced.

It is well-established that social media is a major driver behind millennials’ travel behaviour. As the sharing of user-generated content (UGC) proliferates, this research examined the extent to which UGC influences millennials’ travel choices.


User-generated content (photos, videos, online reviews, snapchats, Instagram stories…) inspires millennials travel choices, especially regarding holiday type and destination (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010; Tussydiyah and Fesenmaier, 2009). However, this study advocates that the trust that millennials bestow in online content varies between UGC and non-UGC sources. This implies that although commercial content is important, UGC is comparatively more important (i.e. we trust our besties’ Insta of the NYC skyline more than if a travel agent posted it).


My research also looked at how millennials extend their definition of ‘peers’ and include celebrities, bloggers/vloggers and other influencers. However, a disparity is suggested between the trust afforded to paid versus unpaid influencers; but that’s a whole other story…


Regardless, the peer visibility of social media represents a proven means for travel motivations and social comparison. This has become a prolific attribute of millennials’ travel behaviour (Quartz, 2019), and motivations to share UGC often involve a need for aesthetics (i.e. millennials very much care about how things look 'on the grid'). Unsurprisingly, “the visual side of Instagram”, specifically, is important, but social media overall presents an environment in which millennials craft their own self-image (Harridge-March et al., 2010). Nonetheless, this study imposed an interesting ambivalence surrounding millennials’ inclination to share UGC for the purposes of ‘likes’ (Fromm and Garton, 2013). (i.e. maybe millennials don't care that much about how many likes they get). Again, a whole other story.



Wait, so what does this mean for travel and tourism?

Millennials represent the majority of travel consumers and will continue to hold this position. It’s a no-brainer that they are an attractive segment for tourism marketing (Kim et al., 2015). My research intended to provide tourism providers with a better understanding of the ways in which travellers, specifically millennials, make travel-planning decisions.

Notably, it was revealed that millennials perceive travellers’ reviews as more useful than tourism providers’ descriptions. Reading negative reviews often prepares millennials for “disappointment” and, as UGC influences millennials’ opinions of destinations, it may occasionally dissuade them to travel. Notably, this study conveyed a link between UGC, destinations' reputations and travel motivations, representing an invaluable insight for tourism practitioners. As millennials’ travel-planning depends on evaluative destination attributes (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto, 2018), this study reinforces that negative UGC must drive improvement (i.e. “all publicity is good publicity” aside, a bad review should actually make a difference to the future operations…) Tourism officials must therefore monitor the valence of UGC and identify where improvements may be required.

Participants in this study suggested that the travel industry lack knowledge regarding social media marketing, despite its recognised importance amongst millennials (Schmidt et al., 2008). Commercial tourism content is considered “outdated”, “no fun” and limited to simplistic posts featuring “typical images”. Travel and tourism marketers must prioritise posting content for the purpose of online presentation, and especially cater to millennials’ travel motivations.


Additionally, travel agents could collaborate with OTAs to maximise their online presence and enhance digital marketing efforts (Anderson, 2011). This could be particularly effective in tackling ‘disintermediation’, which has altered the role of high-street travel agents (Liang et al., 2016). Disintermediation basically means that we millennials increasingly bypass offline travel-planning intermediaries (such as the local high-street travel agency).

If millennials react favourably to an activity, they “post about it…which could lead to more people doing it”. Tourism practitioners could therefore enhance digital marketing campaigns by encouraging travellers to use hashtags, with the intention that others will see, subsequently be influenced by, this UGC.


Ultimately, tourism practitioners should strive to leverage millennials’ intensive use of online platforms and UGC-sharing into their digital marketing strategies. Thus, it is argued that this study is beneficial to inform industry professionals on the role and use of online platforms when marketing to millennials.


Indeed, millennials’ guaranteed stream of travel snaps has been hindered by the pandemic. But if they're going to post about our travels, industry professionals may as well take note and take advantage.



Thanks for reading and may summer 2021 travel plans be ever in our favour...



Caitlin

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